Localism

English Law of Settlement

1662

Authorized a provision to expel any family renting a property for then than 10 pounds a year

Social Welfare in the Colonies- 1619-1783

History

1620

farming out- poor went to live with other families in town
-->could spend several weeks in a home or could be more permanent
led to exploitation→ caretakers limited what they provided to the people in their homes, and extracted more work from them

outdoor relief- relief in the family’s own home
-most often offered to sick, disabled or old white who conformed to definitions of the deserving poor
-this form of aid included food, clothing, firewood, medical care, and sometimes a small weekly cash payment

this form of aid essentially worked to uphold the family ethic by keeping these people in their homes (family was seen as the society’s core institution)

indoor relief- preferred form of assistance. Required recipients to enter a workhouse or almshouse
Established in some eastern cities during the late 17th & early 18th century in some eastern cities...mixed efficiency and deterrance
-->ultimately sharpened the distinctions between the worthy and the unworthy poor

Politics

1620

Colonies

Politics:
• Governor heads English administration
• Governor can cancel any law the assembly enacted and dismiss the assembly
• Only Assembly could raise taxes and budget spending
• Three main issues:
1. Relations with Britain: taxes and trade
2. Relations with Western Settlements: demanding roads and protection which conflicted with settlers of the east
3. Local laws and administration of the poor: Domestic affairs in the east, crime, construction of roads
• Colonial communities devoted much effort to deter immigration of poor because the presence of strangers threatened to raise taxes.
• The first rule of colonial poor administration was to make the poor people who did not already live there somebody else’s responsibility by ordering them out. This enacted a new poor law in 1735 and was widely accepted.

Ideology

1620

deology

Republicanism as the prevailing ideology
Republicanism - reflects an implicit belief that the individual has a fundamental sense of expanding political rights and economic possibilities.
Ideology that men were expected to benefit from their own hard work
Family Ideology - men were in charge, and women, children, servants, and slaves were subordinate.
Husband had to be a free laborer, at minimum.
Stress on work ethic
Everyone within society had a role to fill in order to fit into a Calvinistic type hierarchy
You're bound by your role in society
Those who didn’t comply with the system were punished (the unworthy poor, women who did not conform to the family ethic, etc.)
The resentment of the merchant elite by free laborers fed many of the social movements in colonial society before the Revolution.

Intro

1620

Colonies (1619-1783) Intro
Colonial America used a modified British system. Differences stemmed from US having no landed aristocracy or feudalism. US had more resources such as land. Class structure in the colonies became stratified and position of wealthy was relatively secure. The church was used as a resources and almshouses built when people could no longer be housed in private homes. The poor's movements were limited (not changed in the US till 1969!)

Social Movement

1620

Colonies -Social movements-- Natashia and Lisa

Hostility towards the- anger to support western settlers

1689-1690 Leisler led a movement for the first time which enabled ordinary working men to hold office.

Slave rebellions- 250 rebellions or conspiracies of 10 or more slaves. Slaves stole gun powder and burnt down buildings. 1712 NYC experienced the first major slave revolt in the colonies - setting fire to a building and killing whites who intervened.

Put aside poor laws and differences to rise up against the British in their fight for independence.

The Economy

1620

Colonies- 1619-1783-
Economy
North
Mostly independent producers . Producing commodities and goods for the home. (60 % of population)
The economy remained very preindustrial.
5% of people living in emerging cities found it easier to sell goods produced at home on the open market. Workers could also find jobs on docks in mercantile trade.
The Northern merchant class prospered and free laborers earned wages that were 30-100% more than workers in Britain.
Almshouses were created to address poverty.
South
Much different economy than the North.
Slaves made up about 50% of the population.
South’s economy was mostly dependent on the plantation where slaves were working. Plantation owners oversaw the workforce and controlled the economy- fewer people worked for pay (because these slaves were considered property working for free).
Southerners were more likely to take personal responsibility for the poor, or allow them to receive assistance in their own homes

Independence to the End of the Civil War 1783-1865

Intro

1783

INTRO
Colonial era slavery and indentured servitude made the concept of free laborer a noteworthy phenomenon
mid nineteenth century the free laborer made up most of the workforce (at least in the North)
Major turn towards institutionalization as a method of managing dependent people
Growing reliance on workhouses for the poor
States constructed first asylums for the mentally ill, thinking that institutions could “cure” the problem of mental illness

-s

l

History

1790

Most events (economics, politics, ideology and social movements) were on state level.

Involved whites who were eligible for aid and African Americans who were not.

Beginning of Civil War in 1861, approximately 500,000 free blacks in the U.S.

Organizations such as Black Masons, the Negro Oddfellows, and the African Female Union established mutual aid societies to supply medical, educational and burial services. Everyone shared these services.

Restrictions on federal government made communities help their own.

Dix helped establish mental hospitals in nine states.

Federal government distributed land to land speculators.

Social welfare remained a state responsibility until the depression of the 1930s and the advent of the New Deal.

The Economy

1790

Economy
o Time of Industrial Revolution
o Number of cotton bales increased from 6,000 in 1794 to 3,841,000 in 1860
o Railroads – 0 in 1790 to 3,300 miles of track by 1840
o New canal construction – 100 miles in 1816 to 3,300 miles in 1840, which drove down cost of transporting goods
o Beginning of capitalism
o In 1750, only 6% of NYC workers were considered laborers and 100 years later, this number rose to 27%
o Jobs increased and workers became more interchangeable, which led to the formation of trade unions
o Unions collapsed in the financial panic of 1837
o John Yate’s 1824 proposal of systems of almhouses intended to efficiently outlaw relief in homes
o 1827-1839, Philadelphia didn’t have any poor relief
o 1848-1859, Chicago didn’t have any poor relief

Politics

1795

Politics

-Slavery dominated US political life during this period

-British goods were exchanged for cotton picked by slaves in the South

-The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 deemed California as a "free state"

-Employers "owned" workers; workers were "free" only if they were earning income

-Civil war was brought about by the Northern opponents of slavery; Northerners were in "uproar" that one person could own another

-However, Northern states often needed less land to operate, therefore would "hire" and "fire"; also treating workers unfairly

-Southern states that employed workers would use labors when convenient and dismissed those to fend for themselves when there longer a use for them

Working areas and conditions, as well as the treatment of workers were poor and unfair in both the North and the South

-Proponents of slavery insisted that slavery provides clothing, food, and shelter, as well as care for family members who are sick, infants, or of old-age

-Additionally, proponents of slavery believes that if slavery did not exist the poor would "not be absorbed" and remain unemployed

-Slavery is linked to social welfare reform

ideology

1800

The first ideology reflected in the title of historian eric fonders- " free soil, free labor, free men"
- it drew on the expainding pool of free laborers and combined commitment to work for wages , upward mobility , abolition devotion to the union and the desire to explore the wage system to each new state

1856 the republican party was founded free white men were destined to be small buisness owners

it assigned work to men and domesticity to women because it split the world of work for them.

it was a vertual prerequisite for the middle class men to havs his women only work in the house

women were thought to be weaker, more delicate, and centimental

inflating women dependence on men

women exalted the importance of their work thus "had to earn a family wage"

the roles were broken down by gender. But the devision mostly occurs between men and women of middle and upper classes. Making this living lifestyle ideal and norm

provided stigmatization for men and women of lower classes who couldn’t conform to these roles

lower class men were stigmatized as they earned too little to support a family or for not having a job and soiled any women who would work

this ideology severely distained the poor of either gender

Civil War to the Progressive Era 1865-1900

Intro

1870

Work for pay allowed people to earn a living but not enough to sustain themselves
Wage slavery is what it considered

The Economy

1875

Economy
a. Shifted from small to large businesses
i. Monopolies: oil, steel, railroads, communications
b. Competition stimulated wealth & productivity
c. Laissez-Faire Age - largely regulated capitalism
i. Period of boom & bust
d. 1873 - Bankers on Wall Street refused to loan Jay Cooke & Companies Philadelphia investment house
e. Panic of 1873 - Cooke's Investment house failed
i. Resulted in banks closing
ii. Railroads defaulted on bonds
iii. Bankruptcies rocketed
iv. Within 1 year - 3 million people were unemployed
f. 1877 - Baltimore & Ohio Railroad cut wages at 10%
i. Great Railroad Strike of 1877
1. 100,000 People had refused to work, 100 people dead, 1,000 jailed
g. 1884 & 1893 - Other panics occurred which extended economic instability for much of its last 30 years
i. Wage tightening was businesses primary responses to competitive pressures
h. Political & Economic Elites used funds from social assistance
i. They tried to align the decline in welfare with the decline in wages
i. "Cheap labor and even cheaper welfare were the two pillars of the rising corporate order in the post civil war economy."

Politics

1890

• The Republican Party dominated politics for most of this period.
• Republicans consistently denounced the Democrats as the party of the South.
• Republicans elected blacks to Southern state legislatures, two US senators and 20 congressmen.
• The Republican coalition enacted the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteen amendments to the constitution which outlawed slavery, and guaranteed citizenship for everyone born or naturalized in the United States.
• The vote was extended to all male citizens.
• In social welfare, it initiated the Freedmen’s Bureau which from 1865 to 1872 distributed food and shelter, opened 4000 schools for both black and white children.
• Land was offered as a minimum cost to predominately African American population.
• In 1876 the presidential race between Samuel Tilden, the Democratic governor of New York and Rutherford Hayes, the Republican governor of Ohio, ended this cycle of reform.
• In the Compromise of 1877, Rutherford Hayes became president.
• Hayes was concerned about the need for federal troops to combat the growing labor militancy in the North persuaded the South they would not re-enslave African Americans, Republicans agreed to the Compromise.
• Because the US government of the late 19th century has not yet developed much of a bureaucracy many schools described the government in this period as court dominated.
Supreme Court established Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896, the doctrine of separate but equal

Ideology

1895

Social Darwinism: 1860 British social philosopher applied the concept to human societies
Survival of the fittest-
Fear was if reformers coddled the poor with charity and legislation, the "unfit" will survive

Politics

1900

Post civil war era established first charity organizations society (COS's)

COS was the First example of formal.social work education

COS's represented conservative Wong of charity movement

Economic, political.turmoil and the great depression charity organizations began to grow. Introduced approach to less fortunate called " friendly visitors" who investigated port families that made sure they weren't receiving help from different neighborhoods

COS's adhered to a belief that charity ruined the recipient
Settlement house movement in the u.s. Began in the 1880s which became a vehicle for female social reformers in the late.19 and early 20th century

Settle house leaders believed that principles of rationality, objectivity, and democracy could be used to.combat reactionary politics, judicial bias, social injustice, intolerance of political differences and anti- democratic impulses.

Both settlement houses and COS's drew volunteers from the privilege class who sought to reduce the gap between the rich and poor

1890s - both COS's and settlement houses began the start of accumulating knowledge about assessing clients as well as about social conditions

1898- New YORK charity organizations society offered the first summer course to volunteers which became the basis for the Columbia University school of social Work

Social Movements

1900

• Rise of the KKK after the Civil War. ( 1868-1960’s) to reestablish the domincance of the White political conservatives elite. They terrorized African Americans in the south and wanted segregation and oppression
• Populism 1890’s labor movement. Wanted a federal income tax, public ownership of industries, 8-hour work days, price regulations and anti-trust laws. Offered a third party platform in 1892. There appeal for farmer-worker alliance was rejected. The populist movement was disintegrated by corporate constituency.

The Progressive Era to the New Deal 1900-1932

Intro

1905

A reform era. Compared to the preceding era, these initiatives were interventionist in nature. The reforms were also corporatist. The economy went from being dominated by monopolies to oligopolies (i.e. from one dominant corporation to several). This era did not effectively change the economic structure. Class structure of small towns was changed. Traditional roles such as farmer, business person, and self employed were pushed aside by teachers, doctors, journalists, engineers, managers and administrators. This created a professional managerial class. This professional managerial class introduced a long list of moderate reforms termed progressivism.

The Economy

Supreme Court broke up the standard oil monopoly in 1911 into 34 different pieces. The purpose was to curb their power in the market base. They ended up extending their production and marketing activities beyond their original territories.

During this time, reformers enacted the first controls on what a business could do.

Politics

1915

• Focused on corruption: meaning control of city or state politics by an ethnically based political machine
− Immigrants and democrats were given votes, jobs and payoffs in big cities such as Boston, NY, and Chicago which gave great power
− This scared working-class causing them to campaign for “good government”
• Corruption slowed social welfare reforms
• The political decentralization of the U.S. government heightened the power of business people who agreed that too much social legislation in one state would be a competitive disadvantage; this persuaded The Midwest and Northeast. Governors who would want to put their states into “laboratories of experimentation” found that other less generous states could easily underbid them. This has been a global and social issue ever since

Ideology

1915

● Equally combined moralism and empirical analysis
● Reformers wanted to resurrect the role of the individual at a time when they were increasingly dwarfed by large political and economic forces
○ Changes in legislation brought about by reformers were slim
● Social welfare reform was also influenced by moralistic feelings
● Female reformers wanted to preserve a separate domestic sphere, aside from their male counterparts
● Women were viewed as the potential caretakers of the nation
○ Women in the poorer classes, however, were condemned
○ They were to be saved from their environment but blamed for their circumstances
● Progressive ideology was also empirical
○ Progressives were the first group of social reformers to collect quantitative data on the poor
■ Reason for data collection - to educate the greater society about the poor in the hope that they would also internalize the enthusiasm regarding reform

Social Movements

1920

IWW (Industrial Workers of the World- aimed to organize all workers, commanded a large following, handed out pamphlets which allowed the socialist party to grow in the midwest. This was the result of absent reforms which lead to more radical proposals.

House leaders and progressive reformers were not attentive to race. Progressive Era was the low point of the twentieth century for African Americans. Poor treatment, limited participation and restriction of jobs allowed the growth of the Ku Klux Klan. Poor treatment of African Americans lead to them uniting under W.EB Du Bois and developed the NAACP which used lawsuits and education to advance the cause. It took 40 years before they were able to win their ground breaking desegregation case Brown vs. Board of Ed.

Women's suffrage rapidly lead to the 19th amendment, but before there were marches and protests and debates with men, had an ambiguous relationship with social work. Welfare reformers focused more on “special needs” of women, programs were meager and only served approx 10% of the women. The suffrage movement grew partly because the moral leverage gained from a separate sphere did not bring women enough real benefits.

History

1925

The Progressive Era was the period during which social work crystallized as a profession
(if Social workers aspired to achieve a professional status, they had to minimize their commitment to social reform)

In response to Abraham Flexner’s statement that social work was not a profession, social workers decided to try and distance themselves from politics.

1917-publication of Social Diagnosis by Mary Richmond
1st book that social work could truly claim as its own
--> sought to distinguish the skills and knowledge base of trained social workers from the efforts of volunteers
-->diagnosis should be a rational scientific process

end of 1920s- Porter Lee, director of the New York School of Social Work
-->reported that social workers had shifted their energies from “cause to function” (from a concern with politics to a concern with the efficient day-to-day administration of a social work bureaucracy)

The New Deal to WWII 1933-1945

Intro

1935

o Stock prices had skyrocketed in Spring of 1928
o Stock market crashed in the fall of 1929
o 100,000 workers were laid off every week for three years and industrial production was down 54%, unemployment peaked at 25%
o Conventional theory was that the economy would fix itself (it didn’t)
o FDR was elected, implemented the New Deal
o New Deal policies’ influence on economic recovery was mixed
o Unemployment had gone down to 14% in 1937 but shot up to 19% in 1938 after Roosevelt tried again to balance the budget
o Arms buildup for WWII ended the depression
o Social welfare legislation that the New Deal enacted especially the Social Security Act (1935); the Wagner Act (1935), recognizing the right to join a union and the 1937 Housing Act drastically changed the relationship of Americans to their government.

Politics

1935

Social welfare in the New Deal furthered the division between the state and federal governments
The Social Security Act consisted of 3 main components to the the US welfare state and resulted in the distribution of functions between the state and federal government

These policies were established to assist those who were of low income however, each program seemed to be limiting for those in extreme poverty.
Aid to Dependent Children (ACD) was a welfare division of the Social Security Act and allowed for the state to determine it's own needs and grants for those served however, Southern states opposed the policy, as it would free African American women in the South from working as field and domestic laborers.
Old Age Survivors Insurance (OASI), today referred to as Social Security, excluded domestic and agricultural workers.
Until the Social Security Income (SSI) was established in 1972 by President Nixon however, prior to this, separate mean-based programs existed for the aged, blind, and disabled in every state.
Unemployment Insurance was established to be a national benefit system, with equal benefits distributed across all states however, was later modified by President Roosevelt which allowed states to determine benefits and the federal government to offset cost of unemployment tax.

History

1940

History-

Divided into two distinct periods.

First period (1933-1935) Roosevelt administration experimented with a host of emergency programs. Designed to salvage a collapsing economy.

FERA (federal emergency relief administration, 1933-1935) to supplement local relief efforts that paid unemployed young men $30 a month to conserve forests, control floods, and develop state parks.

12% of all WPA workers were female because between 1932 and 1937 the federal economy act allowed more than 1 family member to be employed.

WPA was reluctant to hire African American women. Only 2% held jobs.

Also discriminated against latinos.

The second deal extended from 1935-1937.

Social security act, Wagner act, and the 1937 housing act authorized the federal government to construct public housing.

1938, fair labor standard act established a minimum wage but just for industrial workers.

GI bill which was officially intended to provide scholarships and loans for all veterans, was racially biased.

1943, Lanham Act, more women were able to work in factories - "Rosie the Riveter"

When war ended, congress cut funds so women lost jobs.

Economics

1940

o Corporations were the cornerstones that kept the system running
o The New Deal motto was “The corporation’s dead, long live the corporation.”
o Roosevelt assumed power in 1933; declared 4-day ban holiday
o To avoid nationalization of banks, Roosevelt proposed regulations in the banking system, in order to restore faith in the securities market
o People were not buying the products that the corporations were creating
o The National Industry Recovery Act (1933) was a new strategy being implemented; allowed businesses to get government approval for price fixing and production quotas
o The NRA would allow workers to organize and poor workers would be treated better
o 1935, the NRA was ruled unconstitutional and created a path for corporations to lead the way out of depression
o Historians considered years after 1935 to be the Second New Deal
o Roosevelt is recognized for his move from the trickle-down effect to social welfare legislation, to put more money into people’s hands

Ideology

1942

the system old system broken down - the new system required the political and economic enfranchisement of trade unions and the poor
- the Roosevelt administration did not want to depart significantly from mainstream opinions of the position of African Americans or the assumption that women belonged in the home
- Roosevelt thought of the New Deal as "establishing an economic declaration of rights"
- the new deal created the acknowledgement of new groups
- farmers got help through the Agricultural Administration which provided subsidy payment and production controls
-trade unions got the right to organize from the Wagner Act
- the elderly, the poor, and the unemployed got the Social Security Act
- for the first time this ideological vision included social welfare which the federal government used to gain the alliance of previously unrecognized groups
-1930's Federal social welfare programs rose sufficiently in importance so that the need for them became a prominent part of the dominant ideology

Post World War 2 to the Great Society 1946-1968

Intro

1950

American opinion makers struggled with the heart and minds of people in non aligned countries such as newly independent countries in Asia and Africa. America had to eliminate segregation so as to be able to work with the newly independent countries
Social policies went in a more liberal direction

The Economy

1955

• Income gains were broadly shared
• Post-war Era - US Production workers' real wages grew 2.5-3% per year
o Benefits spread as well
• 1950 - Union contracts provided pensions to 10% of production workers
o 30% included insurance
• 1955 - 45% of all contracts offered pensions
o 70% offered health insurance
• G.I. Bill - when returning home, they started families and got college degrees
o Bought houses with Government subsidized loans
• Recessions of 1949, 1958, 1961 brought the unemployment rate to increase
• Deficit Spending was the key to prosperity
o This had been used in depression & throughout war
o Spent more than 2X its actual revenues
• Federal Government could not rely on consumer revenue
o Caused the Government to go into deficit for 30 years.
• WWII on, deficit spending is closely intertwined with "Warfare Welfare State"
o Military & welfare spending was critical in the economy's health
• 1964-1968 - Military Spending
o Korean War (1950-1953): Government reduced unemployment from 5.9% (1949) to 2.9%. However, a year after the war ended, the unemployment rate shot back up to 5.5%.
• 1968 - Spending in both warfare and Great Society Welfare programs, reduced unemployment to 3.6%.
• Psychological Consequences
o For the first time in a generation, most Americans felt reasonably secure.o Work was regular & there were baby boomers to raise
o Great Society: 1960s - economy made people feel that giving to others took very little away from themselves.

Social Movements

Anti War movement protested Vietnam war. Wanted money spent on domestic causes like poverty rather than the military. Anti war movement included groups like students for a democratic society. First anti war march in 1965

1954- NAACP successful suit Brown vs board of education which desegregated schools and thereby called into question the legality of racial segregation in every other public facility.

1955 Rosa parks refusing to get off the bus lead to 381 day bus boycott.

1959 4 freshman sat in on a white only table which lead to the formation of the student non violent coordinating committee, the 1961 freedom rides to desegregate public transportation facilities throughout the south and flurry of national indignation about southern racial policies.

Politics

1960

• The peers of dominance usually described the post war period as part of an extended new deal coalition one that lasted from 1932 to 1968
• Just as the Republicans dominated from 1896 to 1932 interrupted by President Woodrow Wilson 1912 to 1920 as the one two term Democrat
• The post war period following on the New Deal was predominately Democratic except for President Dwight D. Eisenhower 1952 to 1960 as the one two term Republican
• The challenge for the right came in the form of McCarthyism, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Washington)
• McCarthyism began in 1950 when he claimed to have a list of 205 communities (which he never showed). It ended in 1954 the Senate censured him after the army McCarthy hearings
• McCarthy himself was the most visible symbol of a “red scare” that made anyone who spoke about prover or racism vulnerable to the charge of being a communist.
• In the years after World War II the scare silence key elements of the progressive coalition especially unions, 11 which were expelled from the Congress of industrialized Organizations (CIO)
• The largest of these unions were the United Electrical Workers membership dropping from 300,000 to 50,000.
• Thousands of teachers, screenwriters and social workers lost their jobs-under pressure from Truman’s Federal Employee Loyalty program.
• From the right anti-communism limited the politics of social reform
• Internal conflicts drove the Democratic party to address racial issues
• Although majority of the black electorate voted Democratic for the first time in 1936, most blacks still live in the South where they could not vote at all.
• As agriculture in the South modernized, blacks lost agriculture work and moved north.
• By 1960, 90% of all Northern blacks were located in the 10 Northern states, with the largest number of electoral votes.
• Unsure that Kennedy could count on southern Democrats wary of Catholicism during his 1960 bid for the white house, John F. Kennedy turned to the black votes in the Northern cities.
• Until the rise of a powerful movement against the Vietnam War in the mid 1960’s McCarthyism on the right and the civil rights movement on the left defined the basic contours of domestic politics.
• Social welfare policies existed within those limits, the most notable of these included the enfeebled Full Employment Bill of 1946 which not guarantee full employment.
The new legislative initiatives- The Housing Act of 1949 which cleared slums in the cities and subsidized the births of the suburbs; the addition of disability insurance to the Social Security Act in 1956 and the 1962 amendment to that Act which for the first time authorized the federal government to reimburse states for the provision of social services.

History

1965

post war era is subdivided into 3 periods.

-First period was from 1946-1953: Conservative squashed the idea that New Deal social policies would continue

-Full employment act was stripped of enforcement powers by businesses

-Taff- Hartley act (1947): Workers were penalized for unauthorized strikes and getting jobs with out a union

Political climate was unfavorable.to major social.welfare legislation

-1954: Brown vs Board of education desegregated the public schools

-As civil rights movement grew, McCarthyism began to decline

-1956: Congress added disability payment to the social security act

-1957: National guard sent to little rock, Arkansas to desegregate central highschool and signed a modest civil rights act

-1960s: Freedom rides

-1962: Social security legislation liberalized federal reimbursement for social services

-1963: Martin Luther King "I have a dream" speech

-1964: President Kennedy's assassination

-1964: President Johnson signed the civil rights act which barred discrimination in all public facilities and established equal employment opportunity commission: Food stamps

-1965: Voting rights act :Federal aid to education, Medicaid:Medicare and many were on poverty programs

Poverty declined from 1960-1972

-1960: social work profession emphasized a case work model which is viewed the clients behavior apart from social context

-When President Johnson declared.war on poverty social work profession changed to focus on community organizing

Ideology

1965

Cold war liberalism
Start of capitalism
Democratic left who opposed capitalisim MBA such as Jack Kerovac, Allen Ginsberg, Norman Mailer and Irving howe pressed for genuine racial equality and insisted that more social programs would make America more democratic
New political consciousness came about with Micheal Harrington's book the other America published in 1962, the bbok exposed the myth that America had eradicated poverty the book got the public's attention
The war on poverty was launched by President Kennedy after reading the book

The Conservative Response 1969-2008

Intro

1970

This time period has enormous consequences for social welfare policy
Economics became more conservative- influenced by think tanks and conservative foundations

Economics

1975

Markets work best with least interference-
Globalization and free trade
Tax Relief
Privatization and Deregulation
Labor Flexibility
Restraints on Social Welfare
The Commercialization of Social Costs

Politics

1980

The Politics of Taxes & the Politics of Race were linked
California Prop 13- Slashed Property Taxes
The myth of "Welfare Queen"

Ideology

1985

Nixon's Conservatism- Grew out of Critique of Great Society- Strong Federal Government Signed the Equal Opportunity Employment Act; Established the SSI program and Comprehensive Employment Act.

Reagan- Built up military and condemned most social welfare programs. Social Darwinist philosophy- successful deserve to succeed and those who fail get what they deserve.
Cut social welfare; slashed public housing; tightened AFDC and reduced spending on food stamps.

Nixon's ideology assumed that too much $ spent on poor, but still a part of society-
Reagan poor people drain the budget and are less than full citizens

Market Populism- Markets expressed the will of the people better than the political process. The CEO was working on park on the "common man"- Privatize, deregulate and ensure a healthy environment for business.

Hurricane Katrina and housing bubble collapse-"If you wanted effective government, you shouldn't hand the reins to policymakers who did not believe government can be effective"

Social Movements

1990

Anti-Globalization movement of late 1990s- criticized free trade policy and protested the WOrld Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- Multinational Corporations were too powerful and bent the global economy to meet their own needs
Women's Movement- ran into issues with failure of ERA and anti-choice
Gay- Right's Movement

History

1995

Nixon increased Social Security in 1972- "crisis" of funding resulted in increase of Social Security Taxes
Decline in the value of public assistance led to welfare reform of 1996
Employment programs- Reagan enacted the Job Training Partnership Act- job training left welfare recipients. Clinton's Workplace Investment Act of 1998 established more possibility of job training

Reagan slashed housing subsides by 75% in mid 1990s did not fund housing.
Clinton broadened the income eligibility requirements
Bush further slashed housing

No Child Left Behind- set standards for educational performance but did not fund.

Bush administration relied heavily on faith based organizations
CONSERVATIVE LEGACY HAS HAD A CUMULATIVE EFFECT ON SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

A New New Deal? 2009- Present

Obama

2008

Bipartianship has proven elusive.
Lilly Ledbetter Act- woman can sue for equal play
Dodd- Frank - regulating Wall Street
Affordable Care Act
Tea Party took the House in 2010- insisted on tax breaks for wealthy
in 2011 tax increase of 4% for those making more than $400,000
Capital Gains tax increases for taxpayers above those thresholds
Increased estate tax on estates worth $10 million
Extended Unemployment